The suspected truck thief was identified as Christopher Smith, 21, of Inglewood. He was booked on suspicion of auto theft and kidnapping and held at the Sheriff's Department South Los Angeles station on $135,000 bail.

A man faces kidnapping and auto theft charges in the theft of a truck in Lawndale that had a 2-year-old boy in the back seat, officials said Tuesday.

Christopher Smith, 21, of Inglewood is being held on $135,000 bail for allegedly driving away with the vehicle and its tiny passenger.

The truck was idling in a parking space near the corner of 173rd Street and Grevillea Avenue at 2:50 p.m.

A suspected auto thief got more than he wanted Monday afternoon when he drove off in a truck with a 2-year-old Lawndale boy in the back seat.
Deputies stopped the truck minutes later, arrested the man and and rescued the boy unharmed, sheriff's Sgt. Paul Schuerger said.

Monday. The boy's 42-year-old father had just strapped his son into the car seat when he ran back into the family's home to get a diaper bag, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Paul Schuerger said.

The father left the truck's air conditioning and engine running while he got the diaper bag. But, when he came back outside, he saw someone driving away in his truck, officials said. He immediately called police and said that his son had been kidnapped.

Within minutes, deputies spotted the truck near 168th Street and Hawthorne Boulevard and pulled it over for a felony traffic stop. The driver stopped without incident and was arrested.

The toddler remained strapped in his car seat, unharmed but visibly distraught and crying.

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"Deputies tried calming the little boy and immediately returned him into the arms of his frantic father," Schuerger said.